Nov/Dec 2002
Issue #126
When Your Bank Leaves Town
Even in a difficult time, there are victories large and small to hearten us, including scores of living-wage ordinances and more than 275 state and local housing trust funds. Everywhere, it seems, new coalitions are being forged between labor, environmental groups, faith-based institutions and community organizations to make—and win—demands of power. Developing political muscle is a process that doesn’t happen overnight. In this issue, you’ll learn about the wins and losses of residents of Camden, New Jersey, who are battling industrial polluters, and the struggle of Latino residents in Chicago to get bilingual tax information. You’ll also learn how to hold banks accountable when they decide to abandon your community by closing a branch. Also, an interview with Boston's Mayor Thomas Menino and an artist profile of Ricardo Cartagena.
When Your Bank Leaves Town
The pictures tell the story. In each, a bank has closed a branch in a vulnerable neighborhood. But in one, the bank completely abandoned a fragile community; in the other, […]
The Housing Policy We Need: An Interview with Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston
Thomas M. Menino, now serving his third term as mayor of Boston, became president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in May and quickly elevated the issue of affordable housing […]
Partners Power GIS
In 1998, Dan McCormick, a program officer at Richmond Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), read an article about Geographic Information Systems, and something clicked. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are based […]
What Lies Ahead
Over the past year, we’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of our readers and colleagues – community builders, advocates, researchers and funders, old friends and new acquaintances. Many […]
Shelter Shorts: Community Development News
A Lump of Coal for Xmas About one million people will begin losing their unemployment benefits after Christmas. Why? House Republicans successfully blocked Democratic efforts to extend benefits through the […]
How to Cope with Funding Cutbacks
I’ve been in fundraising since 1976, and I remember the panicked calls I received after Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980: “We’re losing our government funding; what shall we do?” […]
The Right to Know
Josefina de la Cruz’s migration history does not stop at her arrival from Mexico in 1972, but continues through five different Chicago neighborhoods, most recently West Humboldt Park. Like thousands […]
What Congress Left Behind
Legislators failed to complete a range of major initiatives during the 107th Congress, including the passage of affordable housing legislation and reauthorization of federal welfare programs. Although these carry-over items […]
Artist Profile: Ricardo Cartagena
Dreaming of Home Above and below, paintings © 2002 Ricardo Cartagena, from “The Eviction Chronicles” Two years ago, the artist Ricardo Cartagena was sharing an apartment in San Francisco’s Mission […]